Windows 8 Phone? No... it's not a typo

Remember i-Mate from the Windows Mobile days? They made the rugged Windows Mobile hand-set that could survive just about anything. Now it appears that the company is working to produce a Windows 8 Phone.

No... not a Windows Phone 8 device, but a phone running Windows 8.

Rumors have the company introducing a 4.7" device running Windows 8 Pro at Mobile World Congress 2013. The device will be powered by an Atom processor, 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and work with HSPA+ and LTE 4G wireless networks.

The Windows 8 Phone will have an optional docking station and wired handset that is dubbed the "hub". When docked the handset can act as a traditional desktop phone and make video calls. The "hub" also comes with a 23" touch screen display, keyboard and mouse allowing it to function as a desktop PC. There is also an auxiliary 10.1" wireless tablet.

Cost? $750 for the phone itself and $1,600 for the phone and "hub". And no, we don't know if it can be dipped in ketchup and survive.

i-Mate never really took off here in the States but has grown into a major phone producer in the U.K. and Dubai. It is our understanding that i-Mate is planning to unveil this new Windows 8 Phone this week in Barcelona. For now we'll sit squarely on the fence with this one and keep the Rum o'meter at five until Dan can dig up some more details tomorrow at Mobile World Congress.

So... what do you think? Could a Windows 8 Phone have a niche in the market? Or is this a concept phone that will have trouble making it off the ground?

I have a HTC 8x, love windows. I have also owned all I phones and many androids, new and old. Bit this is pointless, like seachaser said, the OS would be dumb on a phone. Why put windows 8 in a phone when Microsoft already is trying to worm on wondows PHONE 8. No trolling here. Just facts.

Why? Because phones are increasingly capable and why not use the capability? I think this is the future of computing- a device you can carry in your pocket with all your data, but can function as a full-up desktop PC with a fullsized monitor and keyboard. Just because you don't understand the future of computing doesn't mean this is pointless.

And dumaal- you're right, this probably won't be marketable as Windows 8; more likely for a future Windows release. But showing they they can do this illustrates how close they are to a marketable solution.

there are a number of thing W8 can do over WP8. Now personally I think the W8 Pro is a little off, I would have expected Win RT since the current line of phones are running the same SoCs as Win RT tablets, minus a couple of cores. The point is, this would actually make an ecosystem. Right now, there is no ecosystem, MS keeps making us think there is. Tell me, what do wp8 and w8 have in common other than the kernel and "Windows" in the name...nothing. If you want to challenge me on that tell me the last time you were able to do things on your WP8 device exactly as you dis on your PC. Tell me how many apps function exactly the same. They don't. So my question is, how does having a WP8 complete my ecosystem of a W8 PC and a Win RT/Pro tablet anymore or better than if I had an iphone/android/Blackberry? It doesn't. Blackberry is the only one who is actually putting together and ecosystem between their phones and tablets. Only thing missing now is a PC. Blackberry 10 owners who previously owned a Playbook will have no issue with using their new phones since the OS is pretty much exactly the same, except a minor difference in the skin and the extra GB of RAM tht allows the inbox to always be open. Other than that they function exactly the same. Isn't that what ecosytem means, everything works together for a seemless transition from device to device? Need another example? Swipe in from the right side of your WP8, did a charms bar appear? Or, swipe from the left, did your open app come up and start working right where you left off? The point is, this is a step in the right direction to give MS a true ecosystem. Again, I think RT would be the way to go, but that's just my opinion.

No, thats not what an ecosystem means. The goal isn't to develop an identical user interface on each form factor. Using a desktop and a phone are two completely different activities that require different solution to suit how users interact with the devices. In my opinion Microsoft already went too far by running a tablet UI on a PC and a desktop UI on a tablet.
Building an ecosystem simply refers to having all of your different devices interacting and sharing information such as media, settings, and accounts seamlessly. Microsoft could improve their platform ecosystem by improving the interaction between devices. The software that syncs content to my WP should be the software with which I manage my music library on my PC. I should be able to buy content on the Marketplace and have it available on my PC, phone, and Xbox. I should receive the same notifications on all of my devices. etc. The ecosystem is about content sharing and interaction between devices. Apple does it through itunes and their various online stores. Google does it through their web services. Microsoft has yet to perfect it.

That's essentially what I was getting at and I think you and I are on the same page just saying it in two different ways. The overall UI doesn't need to be exactly the same look, but deffinately should be the same feel. WP feels nothing like Win8 and winRT and that is the problem. Win8 PC varient should never have had the metro UI forced on us but only given us the option to run that UI but still allow us to boot into desktop if we preferred. In fact that was the initial impression everyone had when Win8 was first introduced. WinRT should essentially be considered the bridge between WP and Win8 with WP having the same feel as WinRT. But I say again, if you claim to have an "ecosystem" what makes having a WP any better than the others. I haven't seen much of an advantage.

The article is claiming Win 8 PRO, which means, in theory, installing and running PC legacy apps, assuming the Atom processor and GPU were enough to power the app you're trying to run.
Possibly run old legacy games, install any emulators you wanted, pair with a bluetooth controller, run Steam (thought no one's going to be playing Crysis, obviously). Can't do any of that on Windows Phone... at least not yet.
Can't play Pinball FX2 or Gunstringer on Windows phone. There's no Firefox for WP. The Win 8 app store may have less apps, but they have a different selection that you can't get on WP. Maybe that will change w/ the upcoming Blue update, we can only hope.
Or home automation options? Instead of hoping that a company makes an app for WP, you could just install the PC app.
Or home network options? With a home network, steaming to and from the phone itself, and sharing files across devices, is practically built in.
Seeing as that I'm already a Live user with all my contacts synced to Live, switching over to a handheld device running Win 8 would be a simple as logging in and not missing a single beat.
If the aesthetics of Win 8 on a smaller screen is the only downside, then its more than a fair tradeoff. The big question is how smooth can all this really run. I can imagine trying to open a legacy app and waiting for it to load all day.

That and being able to manage the device directly via AD group policies? That's a win right there - or could be. One thing to realize straight away is that this is not a consumer device. Look at the pics and look at the OS. This was built for business.

Personally I think it will be about as successful as the Cisco Cius tablet but as an idea it's not too far out there. Maybe in a few years when the business world is ready to move beyond Win7... maybe.

As others have commented already, Windows RT is the aim here and this isn't the first time the W.OS has been seen working on a phone. Essentially it's a tablet in a phone-sized form and for sure, this is the future of Windows: There will be Windows and Windows Pro (Like Surface and Surface Pro) rather than the current three options. I don't think this is too far away (Windows 10?) and has been the stated (ok, alluded) aim of MS since it's ONE mission started. It's an interesting concept to dock I'm this way, but I believe people will prefer two (portable) devices instead of the dock, which is priced similarly to Surface Pro 2 so why bother with the less powerful dock? All good stuff though and nice to see other companies considering the potential mashup of devices and services made possible by W.OS (my ironic term for the ecosystem).

Although I doubt this particular device will ever see the light of day, the point would be ultimate mobility. You would be able to leave your PC, or your tablet, at home or work, and grab just the phone. You literally would be able to never have to stop working.. Wait!!,, Screw this!! Lol.. This is the mans plan to work us 24/7!!! Lol!

I thought that was the point of the Surface RT/Pro. But I could see it being useful in that manner but something that small would too closely rival a Windows Phone 8 device and probably confuse a lot of people.

How nice. Pitty Asus already did this with the Padfone. Except the Padfone doubles as a tablet. And isn't as expensive.
So...I can't say this is anything that appeals to me. And at those prices, I highly doubt it will ever take off. I can't see a market for this honestly. Not with the integration you already get with WP8.

I owned a couple of imates phone back in the day, and I don't remember them manufacturing phones, they just used rebranded HTC phones before htc started selling directly to consumer, and that how imate died :/

As soon as a company capitalizes on this idea, I will buy it!!!
While I love my Windows phone, I was really hoping Windows phone 8 was exactly that- Windows 8 with phone support, gesture support, desktop and all! Being a developer, develop once for all devices will be nice.
With the 1080p phones out now, having one phone that does it all, wherever you are, will rule all devices- period!!!

I like the idea, but I'd go with the 2.3 GHz Quad Core Snapdragon 800, 4 GB RAM, 128/256 GB Storage, SDXC Slot, Nice front & rear cameras, better design of the device & dock (maybe anadized black aluminum, also can't stand the square corners), wireless headset on the dock, & 5-5.5" S-LCD 3. Also, needs to have all 3/4G frequencies to work on all carriers (2 versions, GSM & a CDMA/GSM one for Sprint/Verizon). Finally, price, $999 for the whole setup; phone, dock, tablet. No keyboard, mouse, monitor included. Let people go buy what they want seperately if they want/need those items. I already have a desktop, so no need for that stuff myself.

This is the future. 27" touch screen monitor with gesture and camera support. Atom 64 bit device with 4GB memory, Win Pro, and a wireless charging station for second screen searches and calls. QWERTY and phone headset and stylus and sound bar sold separately. Encrypted WiFi replaces cabled Ethernet

Great concept, but I don't know how close to it actually happening we are at this point. So much in its infancy with MS right now, I have no doubt this is a direction they could see their platform(s) going.

I agree. The first device to truly replace the PC entirely will be the future. I would very very strongly consider this phone. If Nokia made one with a slightly larger screen and a physical keyboard, I would buy one sight unseen.

Looks like iMate jump
the gun into the future by 3 or more years with the new Windows 8 Phone.
All I can say is wow!
To bad the CPU and memory are substandard for the OS or I would jump to buy it.
I'll just wait till Nokia make a Windows 8 Phone with a decent CPU in it and memory like 128GB. I know, it be three years from now!
But this is the future now!

What kind dump people are working in Redmond these day for Microsoft? this is the kind technologie they should be working on this a great concept. having the ability to carry around my PC in any form is priceless This the bridge that window phone need to get a good bit out Apple and Android smart phone market share Bill Gate need come back to save Microsoft from Steve bumer Someone else is using your software better than you wow !

This hurts my head. But only because Microsoft has caused this problem. I have all this processing power in my hands, but I can't run apps like remote desktop. Why is that? I thought this move to NT kernel was supposed to help bridge the gap. This just shows that there is a niche/need/whatever for more usefulness in the palm of my hand. Paul Thurott mentioned this in a posting and I completely agree with him.

This could be awesome. I heard hTC wanted to make a 1080p 5" quadcore phone then have an ASUS padfone style tablet the phone would dock in and run Windows 8/RT for ARM. That seems more practical. but I could see this as an option.

I like the concept but not the iPhone look. That's a turn off for me. As much as im tired of these iPhones and ipads I don't want another phone especially coming from a wp8 to look like an iPhone. I just hope WP's can stay looking unique than others

What i would like to see is two OS's: Windows RT for mobile (phones, tablets) and Windows (desktops/laptops), just like iOS and MacOSX, so you can use the same apps on your phone and tablet and apps for your desktop/laptop.
Now Microsoft has 3 OS's and (especially for a dummy) that can be confusing sometimes.

Although it shouldn't, the Windows Phone branding is already confusing enough to the average consumer. In Canada, Rogers messed with it even more by making their "Windows 8 experience" include Windows 8 as well as Windows Phones, and call them Windows 8 devices. I feel like a legitimate Windows 8 Phone is just going to confuse everyone more than they already are.

Interesting concept , can't wait to see how it goes !
Not sure I'll be an early adopter for something like this (came from Atrix , WebTop anyone) , I'll wait until its mature enough to used on daily basis .

Btw , Didn't iMate close down ?
Just mentioning the name iMate brings memories of that sad iMate i used to have back in the day .

I predict this since years... this is the future of enterprise computing...
One Device ! The tablet is not a computer.. its just a wireless connectet touchscreen.
With the next generation quadcore Atoms 22nm this will be the enterprise desktop 2014...running lync and uses citrix or vmware to rum highperformance apps at the serverside...

Nooo.. Stop this nonsense. Windows 8 phone will just be doing what apple does and that is basically scaling their OS to scale every system. I enjoy having a slightly different but similar enough system to be constant with my windows 8 laptop. Also the phone part of that has a round part button thing on the bottom...iphone has that... And s3 has a different shape... Lets keep windows phones and windows 8 phones nice and slick by doing away with those extra details.

I think this is where things are heading with Windows Blue, it's just i-mate doesn't feel like waiting. I think Nokia should do something similar too. I like the idea, with a few adjustments: get rid off the wired dock (it looks ridiculous) and the tablet too. Make the phone itself very large, say, 6 inches. Actually on a second thought, the whole idea is for a 6 inch WP8 pro phablet that can make phonecalls and connect to an external display and mouse. Very very nice

I remember buying a i-mate SP3i. £250 back in 2004 from amazon, and i have to say its the worst phone i ever had. Windows operating system left much do be desired and the build quality was awful, keypad stopped working properly, joystick flew off and the back case fell off.

The only one downside is... portrait mode? Do Metro apps rotate to portrait? I've only used Win 8 on PCs and laptops, so I don't know. The mock-up shows the Start screen in portrait... but what would happen if one were to open one of those apps?

Ok, all the negative talk about Windows 8 on a phone is ridiculous. We all know that's exactly what we are headed to. Of course we aren't quite ready for Windows in such a small form factor. Microsoft had enough trouble making Windows accessible on tablets. But imo there will be no Windows Phone 9, it will be Windows 8/9 Phone

I'm surprised by the negativity towards the concept. While it's still probably a couple of years ahead of it's time, this isn't the first time companies have released phone-sized machines running desktop Windows and the OS wasn't even slightly touch friendly at that point. Windows 8 shrunk down to a 5" form factor wouldn't be all that horrible and if it had a Wacom digitiser onboard even the desktop wouldn't be a huge hurdle to use.

I've been yakking on since I was in college (a fair few years ago now) that this kind of thing is the future. Your computer is in your pocket as a phone and you just plug it into a larger screen and keyboard once you're at your desk and youve got a full desktop setup. I don't see where else computing will go other than this.

As for Windows 8 on a phone, RT is probably more suited to that right now but once the OS is optimised for smaller form factors and the code base for the WP/RT apps are unified and W8 will run phone apps (apparently being worked on right now) what justification will there be for Windows Phone to be something so seperate?

I genuinely think in three-four years time it will just be 'Windows' that will scale from a 4" phone to a 30"+ monitor, and Windows Pro which will also include the desktop.

This kind of device sounds brilliant, ahead of it's time but still brilliant, and if they do announce and release it this year, I'd definitiely attempt to get one.

For now though, I'm just going to have to live in a three device world (phone, atom tablet, i7 main machine) but I can't wait for the future when it's just one device that's powerful and versatile enough to do it all.

I refuse to believe Microsoft would allow such a monstrosity to exist. They would refuse to add phone call support to W8 and make the company use WP8. They clearly didn't work for 3+ years on WP just to throw it down the well eventually.

Absolutely love this concept. This is what I thought Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 were going to be in the first place. How is it that some people cannot see that the future is many devices of all different form factors that can perform the same job? I admit there might have to be some trade offs but this is the future. And I read some comments on here talking about, "Can you imagina charms on a phone!?" Uhhhh yeah I can actually. What is so crazy about edge swiping on a phone. Hell it makes MORE sense on a phone then it does on a desktop. Swipe in from the left edge for recent apps and swipe in from the right edge for charms. Why do the call it charms? Such a poor name...
Anyway I wouldn't get one only because I know that its probably not ready for prime time. But if anyone that has clout with MS is listening.......I challenge you to make this,

Like like buying an Atrix 2 and use it as a pc. It is a completel waste of money. For 1600 I would just buy a nokia 920 off contract and a high end ultrabook and still have money left over to do what I want...maybe a surface pro too. Complete waste. I can guarantee that this will fail..especially in the US and the carriers wont support ANY updates for a major OS on their networks. This is someone rendering a pipedream and expecting 10 minutes of fame.

This is where Microsoft is ultimately heading IMHO. Windows 9/WP9 will be a single platform with a different UI overlay depending on which device you happen to have it installed on. A vertical Windows Phone style UI if installed on a phone, but if you plug that phone into your dock it loads the full Windows UI on your large monitor. It would be a terrible lapse on Microsoft's part if this isn't what they already have planned.
It would be a blessing for developers, who could would only have to re-arrange the UI of their apps to write both the desktop and mobile versions, without having to completely re-code the entire app. This is what Microsoft has been talking about.

Lets all hope this will come to fruition. We all know that mobile tech is the way of the future and we all know that one day we will have one device that works as a tablet or PC.... I for one am amped up that Such a device is coming out and I hope Microsoft is the first to perfect this, my computer now only runs on 2 cores most new phones coming out work on 4+ in reality I think we are only a few years away from really seeing companies launch such devices how awesome would it be ? Really though think about it! 1 device or a whole family having a device and always having a true personal experience by just slapping a phone on a adapter of some sort

While I hope that Microsoft will, at some point, merge Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 much like what Ubuntu is currently doing, I do not think this is the answer.
Seriously here, copy Ubuntu - make the app store support both platforms, make the phone have phone type functions when not docked, and a full client when docked.
You could keep them seperate too, just merge the accounts even. Make windows 8 RT apps run on Windows Phone 8, that type of thing. Having two app stores is silly.
Also, that phone would suck in portrait mode.

Whether or not this is true, it is exactly the kind of set-up I have been looking for. I want a phone that's a fully functional computer that can be docked with a tablet and finally a large touch screen for desktop functionality. This solution is perfect mobility IMO.

Are those screenshots the actual products? If so, that tablet looks badass. The design is very intuitive: little handle to the left. Anyway, the basic idea behind this is pretty cool: your PC (here, the Windows 8 Phone) is basically just a portable processor that you carry around and dock into monitors, allowing true portability and the same experirence (same programs, files, etc.) no matter where you use it.